Part 2, Six Summary

Sam has a falling out with the group over a boycott which he scorns but Merton Kugle supports. While Merton argues, Sam looks around the room and is disappointed to see few of the illustrious comedians and actors who first attracted him to the group. "First among equals was how he had envisaged his role, but where were his equals?" (page 144). On vacation in Italy with his sons, Julian hopes to clear his head of the nonsense filling it. He discusses women with Alfredo and Rodolfo, but when Alfredo introduces him to Hannah, claiming she has something in common with Julian because they are both Jews, Julian wonders if his sons are anti-Semites.

After Libor receives a letter from a woman he has not seen in fifty years asking if he still writes his column, his response leads to him sitting...